Berwick Selective School

[wombifat]

It's two years too late.
I didn't go to Macrob becuase it was too far and all-girls
and now they make a coed school in Berwick
ohwell I'm pretty happy with my school
*meh*

[mtwtfss]

They just stand in the doorway, and dont move down the carriage and just are really loud and obnoxious.

This one guy yesterday was just sittin in the middle of the doorway blocking everyone so he cood read his paper.
Then this other MHS guy got up off a seat for this old lady and then this other MHS dude just jumped on the seat and made the old lady stand who was too embarrased to say anything.

Just the general "i have 2 be 3cms away from my friends all time on the train really shits me"

The girls from Sacred Heart have to take the cake though. I've seen people doing Long Jump over there bags which create mountains in the walkways because they're too rude to put them under their seats or hold them.

oh farken those Sacred Heart girls, literally cannot tell the difference between the year 7's and 12's all the same height.

anddd they make a shit load of noise, like noisiest noise i've ever heard, screeches and shit..i try to avoid them at all costs.

just a warning..never get on the two 3pm pakky trains (3.07 and 3.02 or something weird like that), painful stuff..

[Ilovemathsmeth]

It's an interesting idea, I'm just peeved because they "copied" MHS and MGHS... =P

[QuantumJG]

Costa, I beg to differ. My research is only anecdotal - I've noticed that the kids at Mac.Rob who significantly lag behind the others end up becoming disengaged with their schoastic pursuits. In year 9, one of the girls remarked that she had no clue what was going on in English class - she couldn't follow the discussion and wasn't familiar with the lexicon being used by her peers.

This girl probably sits at the 80th percentile in comparison to the rest of the state. Now she feels like she's dumb and is reluctant to participate in class.

Look, I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but in my opinion, it's just not fair to put people into that position. She'd be better off in an environment where she'd be able to keep up to date and be engaged in what she does.

Does that mean I should drop out of UoM and go to a worse university so I feel smarter? Sometimes people's smartness in tutorials can be intimidating, but that just makes me want to try harder, and boosts my motivation to learn, personally.

Sometimes I hoped for more academic competition to really push my limits in a subject. When there is competition you will reach your full potential (especially if you have an ego). UoM is MUCH more competitive than my high school and it's great because you get to see other people's view on the subject, people have something to say instead of leaving one person to carry the class.

Personally I would rather be in the middle of a top class instead instead of the top of a mediocre class. I am definately for more selective schools, I had a friend who was a very bright student, but because he found school so slow and boring he would sleep in classes or write calculator programs to solve problems.

[NE2000]

Costa, I beg to differ. My research is only anecdotal - I've noticed that the kids at Mac.Rob who significantly lag behind the others end up becoming disengaged with their schoastic pursuits. In year 9, one of the girls remarked that she had no clue what was going on in English class - she couldn't follow the discussion and wasn't familiar with the lexicon being used by her peers.

This girl probably sits at the 80th percentile in comparison to the rest of the state. Now she feels like she's dumb and is reluctant to participate in class.

Look, I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, but in my opinion, it's just not fair to put people into that position. She'd be better off in an environment where she'd be able to keep up to date and be engaged in what she does.

Does that mean I should drop out of UoM and go to a worse university so I feel smarter? Sometimes people's smartness in tutorials can be intimidating, but that just makes me want to try harder, and boosts my motivation to learn, personally.

Sometimes I hoped for more academic competition to really push my limits in a subject. When there is competition you will reach your full potential (especially if you have an ego). UoM is MUCH more competitive than my high school and it's great because you get to see other people's view on the subject, people have something to say instead of leaving one person to carry the class.

Personally I would rather be in the middle of a top class instead instead of the top of a mediocre class. I am definately for more selective schools, I had a friend who was a very bright student, but because he found school so slow and boring he would sleep in classes or write calculator programs to solve problems.

It's a double edged sword. Competition lets you push your boundaries, but it doesn't really help your emotional health. I never minded competition much but am enjoying the break from it right now.

[brightsky]

I think its a good idea that they are building more selective schools. But with its supposed link with MHS and MacRob, it sort of ruins the "godliness" around the two schools because its building another two. But then again, I'm coming from the view of someone who has grown up being coerced into believing so...><

[*ryan777*]

i guess its only normal that as population grows, so does the amount of selective schools

[NE2000]

I think its a good idea that they are building more selective schools. But with its supposed link with MHS and MacRob, it sort of ruins the "godliness" around the two schools because its building another two. But then again, I'm coming from the view of someone who has grown up being coerced into believing so...><

I don't know, I think unless the child lives in the outer western/eastern suburbs, parents would prefer to send them to known and proven no. 1/2 ranked schools than a relatively new school...so that would maintain some of the proness of those schools.

In Sydney they have tons of selective schools, some are still acknowledged to be better than others. Eg. James Ruse Agricultural High School (wiki it) has a huge aura.

[*ryan777*]

I think its a good idea that they are building more selective schools. But with its supposed link with MHS and MacRob, it sort of ruins the "godliness" around the two schools because its building another two. But then again, I'm coming from the view of someone who has grown up being coerced into believing so...><

I don't know, I think unless the child lives in the outer western/eastern suburbs, parents would prefer to send them to known and proven no. 1/2 ranked schools than a relatively new school...so that would maintain some of the proness of those schools.

In Sydney they have tons of selective schools, some are still acknowledged to be better than others. Eg. James Ruse Agricultural High School (wiki it) has a huge aura.

i agree, the location of the new schools aren't very good

[QuantumJG]

I think its a good idea that they are building more selective schools. But with its supposed link with MHS and MacRob, it sort of ruins the "godliness" around the two schools because its building another two. But then again, I'm coming from the view of someone who has grown up being coerced into believing so...><

I don't know, I think unless the child lives in the outer western/eastern suburbs, parents would prefer to send them to known and proven no. 1/2 ranked schools than a relatively new school...so that would maintain some of the proness of those schools.

In Sydney they have tons of selective schools, some are still acknowledged to be better than others. Eg. James Ruse Agricultural High School (wiki it) has a huge aura.

i agree, the location of the new schools aren't very good

I believe the locations are great. I have a cousin who lives in Berwick and he says it's a dive with many teens smoking and drinking. He said his school was pretty crap and a lot of people (including him and his sister) drop out. So basically in that kind of environment you would expect academically gifted students to face a hard time at a normal school.

With all the great schools in the eastern suburbs it's pretty easy to do well, whereas in somewhere like Berwick it's probably much harder. In the eastern suburbs if you can get atleast a 90 you are doing good, in like Berwick you are doing great if you get atleast 80. 

[NE2000]

In the eastern suburbs if you can get atleast a 90 you are doing good, in like Berwick you are doing great if you get atleast 80.  

I don't really agree with this statement. I don't think a school's culture can create the difference between 80 and 90. It can create some difference, but I don't think that many of the high 99 kids at elite private/selective schools would be getting 80s if they went to a local school in Berwick or Werribee. They may get less for one reason or another but they would still do well. Also remember that many of the people that succeed at selective schools have a local public primary school and local state secondary school background.

[vexx]

In the eastern suburbs if you can get atleast a 90 you are doing good, in like Berwick you are doing great if you get atleast 80. 

I don't really agree with this statement. I don't think a school's culture can create the difference between 80 and 90. It can create some difference, but I don't think that many of the high 99 kids at elite private/selective schools would be getting 80s if they went to a local school in Berwick or Werribee. If they have a good work ethic they could even use the extra two hours study time (by eliminating travel) more effectively by going to a local school.

if you consider the teaching quality & resources the suburbian schools have compared to the eastern suburb school, there's no way someone can do better in these scools then a regular. sure there are some expections (Mao), but it's not as if there's not a reason that some schools have an 1 or 2 students receving a 40, compared to 30/40/50+ students.

[QuantumJG]

In the eastern suburbs if you can get atleast a 90 you are doing good, in like Berwick you are doing great if you get atleast 80. 

I don't really agree with this statement. I don't think a school's culture can create the difference between 80 and 90. It can create some difference, but I don't think that many of the high 99 kids at elite private/selective schools would be getting 80s if they went to a local school in Berwick or Werribee. They may get less for one reason or another but they would still do well. Also remember that many of the people that succeed at selective schools have a local public primary school and local state secondary school background.

I wasn't saying that people who can get a 99 will get an 80 if they went to a school in Berwick, I said they would have a hard time with their peers. My cousin told me that the general concensus is that students at Berwick schools do not encourage people to do well academically.

[appianway]

In the eastern suburbs if you can get atleast a 90 you are doing good, in like Berwick you are doing great if you get atleast 80.  

I don't really agree with this statement. I don't think a school's culture can create the difference between 80 and 90. It can create some difference, but I don't think that many of the high 99 kids at elite private/selective schools would be getting 80s if they went to a local school in Berwick or Werribee. They may get less for one reason or another but they would still do well. Also remember that many of the people that succeed at selective schools have a local public primary school and local state secondary school background.

I think it can, especially when you have an isolated community (whether that be in outer suburbia or the country). VCE scores are largely about motivation and resources, and if you have students who really don't care either way, they're not going to do amazingly, irrespective of their intelligence. Certain environments will affect individuals differently, and you're always going to have the handful that

I think my cousin epitomises this. She did well - about 95 - but in primary school she was winning major prizes in national competitions, as well as high distinctions in the majority of competitions she entered. She's now at Melbourne Uni, attaining straight HDs whilst still maintaining a social life. If she'd been at an elite private school in VCE, she would've had a shot at high 99s, if not a 99.95 if she'd knuckled down. She worked in high school, but she wasn't really pushed to succeed and she could've done much better. That said, she didn't get dux of her high school - she just missed out, but her score's incredible considering the number of other things she did in the year (many of which were very social). She went to a country school which didn't have a very academic ethos (most of the kids who did end up going to University didn't even apply for G8 institutions and most didn't apply full stop).

To summarise my ramblings, everyone's affected differently by scenarios, but often the culture of a school will affect certain exceptionally intelligent individuals in a very negative manner. 

[NE2000]

Yeah I retract that opinion now. What didn't sit very well with me was the suggestion that a person's potential is limited by their school to the extent of 10 ENTER score points. However your anecdotal examples are all valid, and I do agree that a negative school culture can stultify one's academic progress and that is why selective schools are important.

To clarify a bit. Appianway's example is getting straight HDs at uni and that indicates to me that she is still very intelligent. In other words, the reason why she may have underperformed in year 12 was that her country school didn't have the hard-working knuckle-down environment that another school would have. But if she did she could still get high 99s. Something about the suggestion that in Berwick you are "doing great if you get at least 80" and in the eastern suburbs "you can get at least a 90 if you are doing good" suggested to me that even by working hard somehow the school is going to mean your potential ENTER is limited.